1 A Short History of Depicting Fish in Chinese Art
Fish have been depicted in China as early as the Neolithic period. Many archeological excavations have brought to light images of fish or fish pattern decoration on pottery made in this period. It reflects the lifestyle of a fishing and hunting society.1 In archaeological findings of later periods and dynasties, such as Zhou (510–314 BC), Qin (221–207 BC) and Han (202 BC–220 AD), fish appear as a common motif in the decoration of objects, such as bronzes, lacquer ware, stone reliefs, textiles and so on. But although the depiction of fish in China can be traced back to Neolithic pottery, it did not become a major subject for painting until the 10th century.
The earliest textual record relating to fish as a subject of representation in painting history appears in A Record of the Famous Painters of All the Dynasties (Lidai minghua ji
By the period of the Five Dynasties (907–960) and the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), fish painting had been established as a specific genre, as is evident from the Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings (Xuanhe huapu
Not only did it become one of the major painting genres, the representation of fish also reached its peak of realistic and naturalistic depiction in the Song dynasty (960–1279). The scrolls Fish Swimming amid Falling Flowers (Luohua youyu tu
Fan Anren, Fish and Waterweeds, detail, mid-13th century, National Palace Museum, Taipei
After the Song dynasty, images of fish, both in painting and in the applied arts, often had auspicious symbolic meanings, for example goldfish (jinyu
Bada Shanren (Zhu Da), Fish and Ducks, detail, 1689, Shanghai Museum
Zhao Zhiqian, Extraordinary Fish, 1861, private collection
From the 17th-century natural illustrations of fish emerged in China, produced by individual scholars and anonymous workshops painters in Canton. This article is a survey of painted natural illustrations of fish in China from the 17th to the 19th century and examines their development in different contexts.
2 Nie Huang’s Pictures of the Various Marine Creatures (Haicuo tu)
Evidential research and learning (kaojü
Nie Huang, Pictures of Various Marine Creatures, 1698, National Palace Museum, Taipei
According to Nie Huang’s own two prefaces, the reason he started to illustrate sea creatures was because it had never been done. Although there are historical books documenting fish, none of them contain illustrations. The illustrations published in the section of fish included in the books of materia medica (bencao
The first book on fish in China, Illustrated Eulogies of Remarkable Fish (Yiyu tuzan
It was not until Nie Huang lived at Wenzhou for almost twenty years, that he encountered and started to illustrate sea creatures. Wenzhou is located at the extreme southeast of Zhejiang province that is surrounded by mountains, the East China Sea and 436 islands. In 1687, he completed the Illustrated Manual of Thirty Species of Crabs (Xiepu sanshi zhong
For each species depicted in the Pictures of the Various Marine Creatures, there is an illustration, its name, a poem, and a text describing its appearance, habitual behavior, and place of origin. In some cases, Nie Huang even related legends or its application in daily life, such as how to cook it and what it tastes like. Moreover, the text is based on Chinese and European sources. Some of the illustrations were clearly influenced by images in European works. For example, the image of the whale in Nie Huang’s work [Fig. 22.5] was copied directly from the European missionary Ferdinandus Verbiest’s (also known as Nan Huiren
Nie Huang, Pictures of Various Marine Creatures, 1698, Palace Museum, Beijing
Despite the legends and some of the exaggeratedly depicted species, most of the illustrations are naturalistic depictions of the actual creatures and have been rendered with the attempt to be true to life.20 According to Nie himself, his method when composing the Pictures of the Various Marine Creatures was “first painting the illustration of the species, then identifying its name, then composing a poetry for the species, then conducting textual research of the species, and eventually making the final judgement”.21 Worth noting is that Nie also paid attention to the relative size of the species and the whole visual composition and arranged the text and image in an organic and vivid way.
In the fourth year of Emperor Yongzheng’s reign (1726), Nie’s Pictures of the Various Marine Creatures entered the Qing imperial collection and later documented in the Second Volume of the Shiqü Catalogue of Imperial Collection of Painting and Calligraphy (Shiqü baoji xübian
3 Han Liangqing’s Commission of the Pictures of Sea Fish (Haiyu tu)
The collection of Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin includes a newly discovered Chinese painted album titled Pictures of Sea Fish (Haiyu tu
According to the preface, Han Liangqing had worked in the desert regions of China for many years when he was put in charge of coastline surveillance at Jieshi in Guangdong province. He had never seen so many different aquatic creatures, so he asked the fishermen to bring in what they caught and asked a painter to produce detailed images of them. To these depictions, he added comments based on his own investigations. The comments, which accompany the images of the fish, have a fixed format: first, he documented the name by which the fish was known locally; second, he tried to find a more common name in order to identify the fish; third, he documented the physical attributes of the fish and how it tasted.25 For example, in the case of the red cornet fish, mabianyu
The local name is horsewhip-fish [mabianyu], because its shape is like a horsewhip, the actual name unknown. Its length can be 4 to 5 chi
尺 [one chi = 33.33 cm], the part from its mouth to its eyes looks like a bamboo joint, the tip of its tail is like a line, just like the tip of a whip. Its appearance is also odd. Its flesh is tender, and the flavour is delicate. [Fig. 22.6]
Pictures of Sea Fish, 1739, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Photo: Ching-Ling Wang
Han Liangqing tasted most, but not all of the fish himself. He mentions, for example, a fish he refers to as the bi-fish (biyu
The local name is bi-fish [biyu], the actual name unknown. Its shape is similar to a purse [hebao
荷包 ]. Its mouth is on the side of its stomach. Its body is thin and soft, the tip of its tail is blackish. The whole body is boneless. It can grow to around 2 to 3 jin斤 [one jin = 604.8 g]. When cooking it, one must wait until the water is boiling, then place it into the water, otherwise the flesh will dissolve in the water. The flavour is somewhat sweet and refreshing. I find it odd, so I don’t dare to eat it. [Fig. 22.7]
Pictures of Sea Fish, 1739, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Photo: Ching-Ling Wang
He also documented some poisonous fish, for example a type of globefish that local people named mianguai
The local name is mianguai. Similar to globefish its character [as food] is extremely hot in nature; its flavour is sweet and refreshing, but it is poisonous. People are often poisoned because of eating it. It can grow to 7 or 8 jin. It can only be eaten when dried. (see Fig. 22.6)
Not all of the fish in the album are accompanied by text. Before Han Liangqing had investigated the fish, there simply was no text. According to him, this was supposed to be a long-term project; he intended to first collect all the fish, then the shells, and so on, but his project was interrupted when he was posted back to the west – Pictures of Sea Fish is only the first part of his ambitious project.
The depiction of the fish in the album is unique in the manner of pictorial representation in China. They have been drawn in a descriptive and naturalistic way without scheme or pattern of conventional representation. The painter focused on capturing the colours of the fish and their physical characteristics (such as the shape of the fins, the texture of the scales etc.) and reproduced these in a lively sketch-like manner. Most of the fish are symmetrical, that is, one side looks much the same as the other. Therefore, in the album, only one side is depicted; in cases of asymmetry, both sides are shown, as in the case of the bi-fish. One might say the depictions in Pictures of Sea Fish show the intention to be faithful to the natural appearance of the fish. The painter portrays the specimens in a realistic manner, with accuracy and objectivity, instead of pursuing a certain quality of the line or painterly effect.
Although the initiative for making Pictures of Sea Fish emerged from Han Liangqing’s own curiosity about sea creatures that he had never seen, the painter he commissioned faithfully documented the fish and gave them their actual biological attributes. The comments made by Han Liangqing were based on his own objective observation of the appearance and subjective experiences of the taste. Both the text and the illustrations are realistic. In addition, Han set out to make a complete record, instead of selecting a few for their aesthetic qualities – he did not have a work of art in mind. Most importantly, the purpose of the album is to inform viewers that these creatures are not strange but actually quite common. This is all a world away from the traditional artistic representation of fish and has more in common with impartial scientific investigation.
The album Pictures of Sea Fish is an extraordinary example of the pursuit of scientific illustration and empirical science in 18th-century China. One may surmise that the album was made to form part of a book of ichthyological studies. As he himself mentioned in the preface of the album, however, the original grand project was never completed.
4 Zao Zhiqian’s painting of the Extraordinary Fish
In 1861, the painter Zhao Zhiqian produced the painting Extraordinary Fish (see Fig. 22.3), a visual record of the marine creatures in the regions of Wenzhou and Ruian along the coast of Zhejiang province. Next to each creature he added his commentary. According to his own inscription on the painting:
In the xinyou-year [1861] of the Xianfeng reign, Huishu [I] traveled to Wenzhou, [I] saw there are sea creatures with strange appearances, hence I depicted them on this paper and also conducted textual research into their names. This is how master painter Gu Kaizhi
顧愷之 (345–406) could depict lively things!
It is worth noting that the octopus (zhangjü
Zhao’s painting Extraordinary Fish, although it can be understood in the context of evidential study, actually aims to depict fish as a local product. Besides the Extraordinary Fish, during his stay in Wenzhou, he created several paintings to depict local plants and fish in the region, for example, the Plants and Trees in Wenzhou (Ouzhong caomu tu
5 The Album Manual of Sea Oddities (Haiguai tu) in the Qing Imperial Collection
There is also an anonymous and undated album Manual of Sea Oddities (Haiguai tu
Manual of See Oddities, 1868(?), National Palace Museum, Taipei
It is also worth mentioning that the album Manual of Sea Oddities contains no text, only images, hence its function and purpose are unclear. It may have been made simply out of curiosity and be seen as an exotic visual wonder for its viewer’s (in this case, the emperor’s) amusement. Furthermore, the style of depiction in the Manual of Sea Oddities is close to the export painting produced in the late 18th and 19th centuries in Canton. Since the context of producing this album is unclear, the possibility exists that this album was not produced by the imperial workshop but was produced in Canton and presented to the court as a local tribute. As Yu-chih Lai pointed out, there are some paintings in the imperial collection that share a style similar to the export paintings produced in Canton, but the exact context of the artistic and stylistic exchanges between Qing imperial court paining and Canton export painting requires further research.28
6 Jean Theodore Royer’s Twelve Albums of 288 Images of Fish from Canton
Botanical and zoological illustrations are a part of the vast scope of export paintings produced in Canton (Guangzhou) during the second half of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection of Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden contains twelve albums of fish, dated 1773–1776, in identical format; each album consists of 24 fish, a total of 288 illustrations, all elaborately painted in water colours, and the majority highlighted with silver, produced by the workshops in Canton.29 They belonged to the collection established during 1765 to 1780 by the Dutch lawyer and amateur sinologist Jean Theodore Royer (1737–1807) through his connections with the Dutch East Indian Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) officials and their Chinese relations in Canton.30
In Royer’s fish albums the fish are depicted individually in a natural setting with background on each leaf and each fish has its Chinese name written next to the illustration. The depiction is executed in a Western manner with shading and colourwash to depict the spots and patterns on the creatures in detail and to create a realistic three-dimensional representation of the fish. Although each album consists of 24 leaves, there does not seem to be a system according to which the fish were placed together. Take the first album for example: it includes crab, lobster, various carps, gold fish, several kinds of perches, different squids, loaches, marble goby (sunkeyu
Twelve Albums of 288 Images of Fish, 1:23, 1773–1776, Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden
Although the fish in the albums are portrayed in a naturalistic and realistic manner, some of the species do not exist: for example the pi-fish (piyu
This kind of export painting produced by the anonymous workshop painters in Canton, often served as souvenirs or exotic visual sources of wonder or amusement to illustrate fish in China for its Western viewers. When examining the content of all the twelve albums, one would find none of them seem to have a subject or system. Some of the fish also repeat. One could imagine, these illustrations were probably made in a single sheet with multiple copies and randomly assembled by the workshop or by the customer’s choice.
In Royer’s possession there were also Album with Mythical Animals, Ten Albums with 320 Images of Chinese Citizens, Twelve Albums with 280 Images of Historical Figures and Chinese Citizens, Twelve Albums with 288 Images of Birds, Twelve Albums with 288 Images of Insects, Twelve Albums with 288 Images of Plants, and Twelve Albums with 1200 Images of Plants and Minerals, which testify that the argument of the function of these kind of paintings served as souvenirs or exotic visual sources of wonder to illustrate the image of China.35 Royer himself used these illustrations and the texts on them as his material to learn Chinese and the knowledge about China.36 Due to the enormous production of the various workshops, however, the quality and accuracy of Canton export paintings also vary.
7 Commission of Natural Illustrations of Fish by John Reeves in Canton
Besides serving as souvenirs or exotic visual sources of wonder, the export paintings produced in Canton also led to engagement from European scholars. It was known that foreign scholars, such as the botanist John Bradby Blake (1745–1773), the naturalist John Reeves (1774–1856) and others, were engaged in the natural illustrations production in Canton.37 Especially Reeves appears to have been in Canton where he served as tea inspector for the British East India Company and was personally involved in the making of the botanical and zoological illustrations (including illustrations of fish) with the local workshop painters.
The fish illustrations made by Canton painters in his collection were especially commissioned by him, as in his notes he recorded the process of commission and also the four painters’ names: Akut, Akam, Akew and Asung.38 The fish illustrations commissioned by Reeves was for Major-General Thomas Hardwicke (1756–1835), a soldier and amateur naturalist based in India for much of his career. Reeves had four copies made.39 The products can be seen as a combination of Chinese art (executed in the Western manner) and Western science. The artists who worked with Reeves paid special attention to depict the texture of the fish, for example, they used gold and silver powder to reproduce the iridescence of fish scales (Fig. 22.10).
Collection of Fish, c.1826–1831, Natural History Museum, London
The fish illustrations commissioned by Reeves were sent to England and were recognized by John Richardson (1787–1865) in his “Report on the Ichthyology of the Seas of China and Japan” in 1846:
John Reeves, […] who was long resident at Macao, filling an important office in the employ of the India Company, with an enlightened munificence, caused beautiful coloured drawings, mostly of the natural size, to be made of no fewer than 310 species of fish which are brought to the market at Canton. These drawings are executed with correctness and finish which will be sought after in vain in the older works on ichthyology, and which are not surpassed in the plates of any large European work of the present day. The unrivalled brilliancy and effect of the colouring, and correctness of profile, render them excellent portraits of the fish40
Interestingly enough, the natural illustrations produced in Canton with the engagements of foreign scholars were sent back to Europe and made an impact on scholarship there. In contrast, there appears not to have been an impact in China of these paintings.
8 Conclusion
The origins of the European study of nature can be traced back to Greek and Roman antiquity, but illustration for science first flourished during the Renaissance, and was seen by contemporary scholars as a ‘combination of art and science’.41 This survey of the development of natural illustration of fish in China, however, shows a different path.
The cases of Nie Huang’s Pictures of the Various Marine Creatures and Han Liangqi’s commission of Album of Sea Fish are in the context of evidential study, but Nie’s work entered the Qing imperial collection in 1726, since then it was not accessible to the public. Han’s Album of Sea Fish was an unfinished project, hence both of them made little impact to the study of the ichthyology in China. Zhao Zhiqian’s painting Extraordinary Fish aims to portray the local products in an artistic way rather than to provide material for natural study. The album Manual of Sea Oddities preserved in the Qing imperial collection has an unknown context in the making and requires further research. Although workshops in Canton produced natural illustrations, the quality and accuracy varies, the fish albums in Royer’s collection served as his gateway to learn Chinese as a language and knowledge about China. The engagement of foreigner scholars in the production of exported natural illustrations in Canton, such as Reeves should be considered as a special commission and those illustrations were custom-made to fit the foreigner customers’ requirements and gave impact to ichthyology in England instead of in China.
This overview of the depiction of fish and other marine creatures in Chinese art offers a view on the varied way in which these paintings came about and the purposes for which they were made. Ranging from an attempt at scientific accuracy, to societal commentaries and entertainment purposes, the illustrations and descriptions of the various species highlight that science and art at times work in parallel but often also may proceed in different degree.
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For the development of fish painting in China, see Liu Zhigui 劉治貴, Zhongguo huihua yuanliu 中國繪畫源流 (Changsha: 2003) 418–423. For the symbolism of fish, see Noriko Miyazaki 宮崎法子, Kacho sansuiga o yomitoku: Chugoku kaiga no imi 花鳥・山水画を読み解く－中国絵画の意味 (Tokyo: 2003) 157–171; Hou-mei Song, Decoded Messages: The Symbolic Language of Chinese Animal Painting (Ohio: 2010) 207–244; Tokyo National Museum (ed.), Kisshō: Chūgoku bijutsu ni komerareta imi 吉祥－中国美術にこめられた意味 (Tokyo: 1998) 26–75.
Wang Fangyu – Barnhart R.M. – Smith J.C (eds)., Master of the Lotus Garden : The Life and Art of Bada Shanren (New Haven: 1990) 102–104, 128–129, 148–151; Hui-Shu Lee, “The Fish Leaves of the Anwan Album: Bada Shanren’s Journey to a Landscape of the Past”, Ars Orientalis 20 (1990) 69–85; Hui-Shu Lee, “Bada Shanren’s Bird-and-Fish and the Art of Transformation”, Archives of Asian Art 40 (1991) 6–26.
Wu Chaoran 吳超然, “Zhao Zhiqian yibaliuyi nian de sanjian zhuopin Yiyu tu, Ouzhong wuchan tujuan, Ouzhong caomu siping: Jinshi huapai yu haipai guishu zhi shangque 趙之謙一八六一年的三件作品《異魚圖》、《甌中物產圖卷》、《甌中草木四屏》： 金石畫派與海派歸屬之商榷,” in Yang Dunyao 楊敦堯 (ed.), Shibian, Xingxiang, liufeng: Zhongguo jindai huihua 1796–1949 xueshu yentaohui lunwenji 世變・形象・流風：中國近代繪畫 1796–1949 學術研討會論文集 (Taipei: 2008) 451–469.
For all the images of the first three albums, see Palace Museum (ed.), Qinggong haicuo tu 清宮海錯圖 (Beijing: 2014); and for the fourth album, see: https://digitalarchive.npm.gov.tw/ITWaterFall (accessed on 11.12.2021).
Palace Museum (2014) 34–37; 40–47.
Sterckx R., “The Limits of Illustration: Animallia and Pharmacopeia from Guo Pu to Bencaogangmu”, in Lo V. – Barrett P. (eds.), Imaging Chinese Medicine (Leiden: 2018) 135–150. For illustrations in the books of materia medica, see Zheng Jingsheng, “Observational Drawing and Fine Art in Chinese Materia Medica Illustration,” in Lo V. – Barrett P. (eds.), Imaging Chinese Medicine (Leiden: 2018) 152–160.
Liu Changzhi 劉昌芝, “Woguo xian cun zui zao de shuichan dongwu zhi: Minzhong haicuo shu 我國現存最早的水產動物志－《閩中海錯疏》”, Ziran kexueshi yanjiu 自然科學史研究 12 (1982) 333–338; Wang Yonghou 王永厚, “Tu Benjun jiqi Minzhong haicao shu 屠本畯及其《閩中海錯疏》”, Zhongguo shuzhang 中國水產 2 (1984) 29.
For the identification of the Latin names of the species in Tu’s book, see Liu Changzhi (1998) 336–338.
For Yang’s book, there are Hu Shi’an’s 胡世安 commentary with the title Notes on Illustrated Eulogies of Remarkable Fish (Yiyu tuzan jian 異魚圖贊箋) and his supplement titled as Supplement of Illustrated Eulogies of Remarkable Fish (Yiyu tuzan bu 異魚圖 贊補) of the Qing dynasty; as for Tu’s book, Xü Bo 徐𤊹 (1563–1639) wrote a supplement with the title Supplement of Notes on the Sea Creatures of Fujian (Minzhong haicuo buzhi 閩中海錯補志).
Palace Museum (2014) 34–37; 40–47.
Palace Museum (2014) 82–83; Lai Yu-chih 賴毓芝, “Zhishi, xiangxiang yu jiaoliu: Nan Huiren Kunyu quantu zhi shengwu chahui yanjiu 知識、想像與交流：南懷仁《坤輿全圖》之生物插繪研究”, in Dong Shaoxin 董少新 (ed.), Gantong shenshou: Zhong Xi wenhua jiaoliu Beijing xia de ganguan yu ganjue 感同身受─中西文化交流背景下的感官與感覺 (Shanghai: 2018) 141–182.
Wu Songfeng 吳誦芬, “Haicuo tu 海錯圖”, Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 363 (2016) 66–73; Zou Zhenghuan 鄒振環, “Haicuo tu yu Zhong Xi zhishi zhi jiaoliu 《海錯圖》與中西知識之交流”, Zijincheng 紫禁城266 (2017) 124–131.
For the identification of the species in Nie’s Pictures of the Various Marine Creatures in Chinese, English and Latin, see Palace Museum (2014) 298–305.
Palace Museum (2014) 36; Wu Songfeng (2016) 68.
Qingding shiqü baoji xübian 欽定石渠寶笈續編 (Qing imperial edition: 1793) 101–130; Palace Museum (2014) 13.
Palace Museum (2014) 13.
For the pictorial illustrating projects in the Qing court, see: Lai Yu-chih 賴毓芝, “Qinggong dui Ouzhou ziranshi tuxiang de zaizhi: yi Qianlongchao Shoupu weili 清宮對歐洲自然史圖像的再製：以乾隆朝《獸譜》為例”, Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jingdaishi yanjiusuo jikan 中央研究院近代史研究所集刊 80 (2013) 1–75; Lai Yu-chih, “Domesticating the Global and Materializing the Unknown: A Study on Album of Beasts at the Qianlong Court”, in Grasskamp A. – Juneja M. (eds.), EuroAsian Objects: Art and Material Culture in Global Exchange, 1600–1800 (Berlin: 2018) 125–174; Lai Yu-chih, “Costuming the Empire: A Study on the Production of Tributary Paintings at the Qianlong Court in 18th Century China”, in Klich L. – Zanardi T. (eds.), Visual Typologies from the Early Modern to the Contemporary: Local Contexts and Global Practices (New York: 2018) 90–103.
For complete translation of the preface, see Ching-Ling Wang, “On the Picture of Sea Fish (Haiyu tu)” (forthcoming).
Wan Qingli 萬青力, Bingfei shuairuo de bainian: shijiu shiji Zhongguo huihua shi 並非衰弱的百年：十九世紀中國繪畫史 (Taipei: 2005) 205–207; Wu Chaoran (2008).
See Greenberg D., “Weird Science: European Origins of the Fantastic Creatures in the Qing Court Painting, the Manual of Sea Oddities”, in Silbergeld J. – Wang E.Y. (eds), The Zoomorphic Imagination in Chinese Art and Culture (Honolulu: 2016) 379–400.
Lai Yu-chih in her insightful article reminds us of the interaction between the court painting and the export painting produced in Canton, see Lai Yu-Chih 賴毓芝, “Qinggong yu Guangdong waixiao huafeng de jiaohui: wumingkuan Haidong cejing tuce chutan 清宮與廣東外銷畫風的交會－無名款海東測景圖測初探”, Gugong wenwu yukan 363 (2013) 74–86.
Inv. no.: RV-360–379a to RV-360–379l. For the complete images of twelve albums, see https://collectie.wereldculturen.nl/?query=search=packages=OnViewWM#/query/da27f61a-ecff-410e-9207-65a743d9c28a (acc essed on 20.12.2021). https://collectie.wereldculturen.nl/?query=search=packages=OnViewWM#/query/da27f61a-ecff-410e-9207-65a743d9c28a.
For Royers collection of Chinese objects, see: Jan van Campen, De Haagse jurist Jean Theodore Royer (1737–1807) en zijn verzameling Chinese voorwerpen (Hilversum: 2000); English version, see Jan van Campen, Collecting China: Jean Thedore Royer (1737–1807), Collections and Chinese Studies (Hilversum: 2021).
The names of the species documented in the first album (inv-no.: RV-360–379a) of the Royer’s fish albums documented in sequence: hongyu 紅魚, longxia 龍蝦, pengxie 蟛蠏, baihualu 白花鱸, jianban 繭班, feilu 飛鱸, zuanchitong 鑽匙筒, autouli 鰲頭鯉, piyu 魮魚, qingjiaolu 青鮫鱸, xioluyu 綉盧魚, youyu 魷魚, huoli 火鯉, jingyu 金魚, ban’ao 班鰲, nizhui 坭錐, caoyu 鰽魚, yaoyu 姚魚, qishayu 蜞殺魚, huamuyu 花木魚, shaqiu 沙鰍, hankouli 鉗口鯉, xiniuyu 犀牛魚, and sunkeyu 笋殼魚.
Inv-no.: RV-360–379a9. For the animals, plants and fish documented in the Shanhaijing, see Zhang Yan 張岩, Shanhaijing yu gudai shehui 山海經與古代社會 (Beijing: 1999) 36–98.
Palace Museum (2014) 178.
Inv-no.: RV-360–379d22, RV-360–379e22, Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden.
Van Campen, Collecting China 218–220.
Ibid. 37–64.
Chen Yin 陳瀅, Lingnan huaniaohua liubian 1368–1949 嶺南花鳥畫流變 1368–1949 (Shanghai, Shanghai guji: 2004) 265–306; Jiang Yinghe 江瀅河, Qingdai yanghua yu Guangzhou tongshang kuoan 清代洋畫與廣州口岸 (Beijing, Zhonghua shujü: 2007) 222–226; Magee J., Images of Nature: Chinese Art and the Reeves Collection (London: 2011) 4–13.
Magee, Images of Nature 11; Kate Bailey, John Reeves: Pioneering Collector of Chinese Plants and Botanical Art (London: 2019) 108–109.
Bailey, John Reeves 115.
Richardson J.M., “Report on the Ichthyology of the Seas of China and Japan”, in Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1845), cited from Bailey, John Reeves 113–115.
De Luca M.E. – Wolf G., “Ligozzis Naturstudien zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft”, in Bundeskunsthalle (ed.), Florenz! (Munich: 2013) 292–294; For natural history and its imagery in Europe, see O’Malley T. – Meyers A.R.W. (eds.), The Art of Natural History: Illustrated Treatises and Botanical Paintings, 1400–1850 (New Haven: 2008).